For the informative review paper, I was required to read various scientific articles about the assigned prompt, cloning. My job was to inform the reader about the positive, as well as the negative issues regarding cloning, without bias, and choosing a side.

Should we be Terrified by Cloning? What the Average American Needs to Know about Cloning

If you were watching the news on February 24th, 1997, chances are you witnessed the  breaking headlines of the success of the first cloned mammal. The story caused a shocking impact throughout the whole world. Most people were in fear of what the achievement of a Scottish scientist meant for the future of cloning. For the past 11 years, not much has changed. The average american would still turn down the idea of being cloned but is that only because we fear what we do not quite know or understand enough about?

The scientific procedure for how cloning occurs contributes to understand cloning as a whole. There are two primary methods for how cloning is conducted: fission and fusion. Fusion and fission both originate from a parent cell. Fission is having an embryo (fertilized egg cells) divided into multiple identical embryos when heat or mechanical stress is used to induce the dividing process. Fusion is when the nucleus is removed from a somatic cell and placed into an egg cell, as that nucleus is well adjusted to that host cell an embryo can grow from it. For example, Dolly the sheep was cloned using a fusion process. “Embryologist Bill Richie lifted a single mammary cell from a six year old ewe and fusioned it to a second sheep’s unfertilized egg, which had been stripped of its DNA” (New York Times 2014) then placed into a surrogate sheep to fertilize that egg. Cloning is divided into two types based on its purpose; they are called therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves using the embryos from the cloning process for embryonic stem cells, tissues or whole organs for transplantation. Reproductive cloning involves implanting the cloned embryos in the womb of a surrogate mother to develop into babies that will eventually grow into an identical person as their progenitor.

Some people felt that cloning identical copies of the same person meant there would a lack of individuality and uniqueness. Yet proponents to cloning claimed that cloning is essentially a man induced process of identical twins. The suggestion that clones were a threat to diversity and individuality then suggest the same could be said about identical twins. Savulescu’s article counter the opponent’s claim in his article by saying “About 1/300 live births is of identical twins (or clones), however, and this does not seem to represent any threat to human dignity”. (2005, p19) The proponents argue against the concern of human diversity and individuality by saying that a person’s  individuality comes from their personality developed through experiences and environment. For example, it states in Morales’ article that, “Even when genetic factors may account for approximately half of the variance in different aspects of personality, intelligence and other developmental characteristics, this implies that environmental factors account for the other half.” (2009 p46) No two or multiple clones would end up having their unique personal experiences that shape their personality and character to result in the individual that they would become.

Other than a concern over uniqueness, skeptics, especially from a religious standpoint, claim that  cloning would be manipulating the order of nature. Some people even saying that “cloning was a case of science gone too far” and questioning if “[Scientist] were acting more like creators than creatures or trying to play the role of god [in creating new life]?” (New York Times 2014) The defense for this would be that cloning was not only about creating new life but to also help save lives. By creating cloned embryos would mean that new medical treatments could be developed and  “clones could be created as a compatible source of protein, cells, tissue or organs . . . in a few cases using in vitro fertilization to identify compatible embryos (‘saviour siblings’). Cloning would ensure the best possible genetic tissue match for donation, though it would not be useful in treating genetic conditions such as thalassaemia”. (Savulescu 2005, p 19) The idea of creating life through cloning served as a solution to couples with fertility issues “with limited numbers of eggs, SCNT could be used to vastly increase the numbers of embryos available for transfer. Genetic tests could be used to identify the embryo with the prospect of the longest and healthiest life. Such an embryo might be a cloned rather than a sexually produced embryo.” (Savulescu 2005, p 19) It is fair to be worrisome of science going against the grain of nature but the scientific measure may offer the possibility to prevent the deterioration of health caused by illness and diseases.

All in all, cloning does come with several advantages for human life, however, the worries of people should still be addressed through proper information and research. Cloning indeed goes against nature yet it serves a possibly greater purpose in saving the lives of future embryos from serious health risks. As well as be a possible solution for infertility. The promises of cloning seem mostly positive when looked into yet concerns of a process so drastic is understandable.

 

References

Morales, NM. (2009). Psychological aspects of human cloning and genetic manipulation: the identity and uniqueness of human beings. Reproductive BioMedicine Online , 19 (2), 43-50. doi:10.1016/s1472-6483(10)60276-3 Retrived from https://ccnyengl21003.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/4005/files/2018/06/Morales_Pschological-Aspects-of-Human-Cloning.pdf

Savulescu, J. (2005).  The ethics of cloning. The Medicine Publishing Company Ltd, 33 (2), 18-20. doi:10.1383/medc.33.2.18.58382 Retrived from https://ccnyengl21003.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/4005/files/2018/06/Savulescu_Ethics-of-Cloning.pdf

[The New York Times]. (2014, October 14). The Story of Dolly the Cloned Sheep| Retro Report| The New York Times [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELZEPcgKkE